Laura Rodríguez Presa

The press steps up as Trump targets Chicago Local journalism is under siege, but still makes itself indispensable

If you think today's news media picture is grim, take stock of how Chicago's local journalists are getting at the truth despite Homeland Security's campaign of lies and intimidation.
My Stop the Presses newsletter.

The presence of helicopters feels more ominous than usual.

Chicagoans say ICE agents responded to heckling with tear gas near school on busy Northwest Side street The deployment of smoke canisters — some witnesses described it as tear gas — came as tensions boiled over on the city’s Northwest Side Friday afternoon.

Chicagoans say ICE agents responded to heckling with tear gas near a school on a busy Northwest Side street.

"It’s upsetting to see people being paid to attack our community for senseless stupid reasons.”

📝 @lauranrodriguez.bsky.social, @jake-sheridan.bsky.social and @tesskenny.bsky.social

Here’s the video that Andrew Denton took while he was getting lunch.

Denton said that agents had been stopped there for less than a minute and that aside from people yelling at them, “no one was attacking the agents.”

“There was no reason for them to that,” he said.

ICE agents deployed gas from their vehicle at random people in Chicago’s Logan Square, across from Funston Elementary school, Rep. Lilian Jimenez confirms.

Here are some images:

Mother and children detained in Millennium Park released from ICE custody, father flown to Texas detention center: ‘We’re praying for a miracle’ The move came after a federal judge ordered that Noemi Chavez and her 8 year-old daughter and 3-year-old are protected from deportation or removal from Illinois while the government responds to a h…

Breaking: Mother and children detained in Millennium Park released from ICE custody in Chicago, father flown to Texas detention center: ‘We’re praying for a miracle’ www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/01/m...

Feds march into downtown Chicago; top border agent says people are arrested based on ‘how they look’ Immigration agents wearing tactical gear and carrying long guns made arrests in downtown Chicago and the River North neighborhood Sunday. “This is not making anybody safer — it’s a show of intimidatio...

Today I spoke with Greg Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol chief, as he led dozens of feds in military gear through downtown Chicago.

He said they were arresting folks based on “how they look.”

“How do they look compared to, say, you?” he said, referring to me.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Police investigate after CBS Chicago reporter’s truck shot out with a pepper ball outside ICE facility in Broadview The alleged shooting happened the same day a journalist was released after being detained by federal immigration agents while covering a protest outside the ICE facility Saturday.

The Broadview Police Department has opened a criminal investigation after an ICE agent allegedly shot a pepper ball at a WBBM-Ch. 2 reporter’s truck Sunday morning outside the agency’s holding facility, which has been at the center of heated protests from concerned citizens and politicians.

D.C. archbishop calls U.S. immigration crackdown a ‘governmental assault’ Hundreds gathered in Northwest Washington for a procession led by Catholic faith leaders to support migrants and refugees.

Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, decried the immigration policies of President Trump’s White House, located just blocks away, likening them to an “assault” that “seeks to make life unbearable for undocumented immigrants.”

“Gregory Bovino, commander at large of the Border Patrol,” openly admits that they use racial profiling

Mother, children detained by ICE at Millennium Park Sunday held at O’Hare with other families: ‘We never imagined’ The mother said she felt her family was targeted because of their appearance. “There were a lot more people there, but the agents came directly to us because of how we look,” she said.

Dasha Ramirez, 8, and her little brother were playing with the water at the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park when federal agents approached their parents.

She ran toward her father, Jaime Ramirez, who was suddenly surrounded by a group of heavily armed agents in full camouflage.

Dasha, 8, and her little brother were playing w/ the water at the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park when fed agents approached their parents on Sunday afternoon. 

The family is now detained at O’Hare w/ other mothers/children awaiting deportation.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/29/i...

8-year old Dasha Ramirez was playing with her brother at Millennium Park when Border Patrol took them. They’re now awaiting deportation to Guatemala. “We never imagined our Sunday would end this way, mother Noemi Chavez said. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/29/i...

Mother, children detained by ICE at Millennium Park Sunday held at O’Hare with other families: ‘We never imagined’ The mother said she felt her family was targeted because of their appearance. “There were a lot more people there, but the agents came directly to us because of how we look,” she said.

Mother, children detained by ICE at Millennium Park Sunday held at O’Hare with other immigrant families.

Yesterday immigration feds were arresting people based on “how they look,” top U.S. Border Patrol official told WBEZ.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/29/i...

Journalist Mario Guevara Speaks - Letter from ICE DETENTION FACILITY — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER The only journalist detained by ICE on US soil, sends a letter to The Bitter Southerner.

Chilling dispatch from Mario Guevara, the journalist trapped in ICE detention for...doing his job.

A DePaul student bottled his own drinks and sold them to follow classmates. Now he’s building an agua fresca empire. blockclubchi.co/46v3DW2

A culture at risk: Chicago’s street vendors quietly disappear from familiar corners during ICE surge Their quiet disappearance marks not just a loss of income for them, it’s also the erosion of a cherished culture by many in the city.

A culture at risk: Chicago’s street vendors quietly disappear during ICE surge

With legal protections rolled back by Supreme Court, most vendors face uncertainty as agents can now target based on race, language, or type of work.

My latest w/ @zareensyed

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/21/c...

A culture at risk: Chicago’s street vendors quietly disappear from familiar corners during ICE surge Their quiet disappearance marks not just a loss of income for them, it’s also the erosion of a cherished culture by many in the city.

Chicago's street vendors carry a cultural legacy that's slowly shrinking away from familiar city corners in the middle of the current ICE surge. "What they do is a dying art, born of love.” ✍️ An important story with @lauranrodriguez.bsky.social

A culture at risk: Chicago’s street vendors quietly disappear from familiar corners during ICE surge Their quiet disappearance marks not just a loss of income for them, it’s also the erosion of a cherished culture by many in the city.

Street vendors quietly disappear during ICE surge. “People don’t really go out anymore. They’re scared of ICE. We’re scared too, but we have no other choice.”

A culture at risk: Some Chicago street vendors quietly disappear from familiar corners during ICE surge. On the ground reporting @chicagotribune.com @lauranrodriguez.bsky.social @zareensyed.bsky.social t.co/Ngn42kEAPt

‘Heartbroken and devastated,’ children of couple arrested by ICE in Cicero traffic stop ask for their release U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Moises Enciso Trejo and Constantina Ramirez Meraz during a traffic stop Sunday as they drove one of their children to college.

On their youngest son’s 10th birthday, federal immigration agents detained a couple who immigrated from Mexico and have lived in Cicero for 18 years, family and lawyers said Tuesday.

Flower vendor arrested at launch of Trump’s ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ deported to Mexico Bystanders filmed federal immigration agents arresting the Leodegario Martinez Barradas last Sunday.

Our latest: I spoke to the family of the flower vendor arrested in Archer Heights last Sunday. He has become the face of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Chicago.

The father was deported to Mexico within 72 hours. No criminal history.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/12/f...

Flower vendor arrested at launch of Trump’s ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ deported to Mexico Bystanders filmed federal immigration agents arresting the Leodegario Martinez Barradas last Sunday.

A flower vendor arrested by federal immigration agents last weekend in Chicago’s Archer Heights neighborhood is now back in Mexico.

“He doesn’t understand how all of this happened. We don’t either.”

📝 @lauranrodriguez.bsky.social and @adrianaperez.bsky.social

Some Americans Have Already Been Caught in Trump’s Immigration Dragnet. More Will Be. Federal immigration authorities have a history of wrongfully detaining U.S. citizens. Advocates warn that the Trump administration’s immigration policies mean that more citizens will get caught up in ...

“It’s really everyone — not just noncitizens or undocumented people — who are in danger of having their liberty violated in this kind of mass deportation machinery,” said Cody Wofsy, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

(Published March)

Right-wing internet personality Ben Bergquam returns to Chicago for ride-alongs with ICE As immigration enforcement is expected to ramp up under President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” Ben Bergquam posted a series of Instagram videos about ICE activity in Chicago and residents protesting federal agents’ actions.

A conservative social media personality with a history of confrontations over immigration has returned to Chicago and is riding along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they make arrests.
trib.al/yT7dFLP

ICE agents in the Park Ave neighborhood spark large-scale protest The group shouted “shame” and "Gestapo,” and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed.

Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a roofing job site in Rochester, NY, after being confronted by more than 100 protesters

The workers stayed on the roof and agents drove away in a Border Patrol SUV on four flat tires, which had been slashed

Advocates to immigrants as raids loom: Carry your green card, watch out for your neighbor, stay home While details of the scope of the arrests and timeline remain unclear, immigrant communities are bracing for increased federal enforcement.

Advocates to immigrants in Chicago as ICE raids loom: Carry your green card, stay home if possible.

In Little Village, community members have whistles to alert one another of federal agents.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/04/i...

I remember sitting in the Tribune newsroom and a murmur built to a low roar of animated conversation and sarcastic laughter as it was announced that our parent company was changing its name to Tronc. Unnecessary work ceased for the day. I hope MS NOW journalists experience that strange camaraderie.

ICE spared him from deportation to Venezuela. He donated a kidney to save his ailing brother in the Chicago area. Jose Gregorio Gonzalez was allowed to remain in the country so he could donate a kidney to his brother, and the men are now recuperating after a successful procedure.

After mounting pressure from advocates and elected officials, ICE granted Jose Gregorio Gonzalez temporary humanitarian parole so that they could proceed with the transplant.

‘Dehumanizing’: Inside the Broadview ICE facility where immigrants sleep on cold concrete An investigation by the Chicago Tribune found that immigration detainees have been held for days at the processing center in west suburban Broadview.

In Illinois, immigrant rights advocates are urging Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to investigate the Broadview ICE facility’s ownership structure and contractual agreements with federal immigration authorities.